as in joining
to become a friend to (someone)
He befriended the new student.
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Recent Examples of befriending
Living in Rio de Janeiro, Luiza dreams of being an artist, eventually befriending a local graffiti group.
—
Rafa Sales Ross,
Variety,
16 June 2026
Dogs did it at least 14,000 years ago, discovering that befriending garbage-producing humans resulted in tastier, more abundant scraps and less arduous lives on their own.
—
Shoshi Parks,
Popular Science,
10 June 2026
Utterback, who’d just gotten married and bought a house in Omaha, instead devoted himself to learning on his own, poring over books, making regular trips to Japan, and befriending masters of the craft.
—
Hannah Goldfield,
New Yorker,
8 June 2026
Palmer-Tomkinson was friends with both William and Prince Harry, befriending them in childhood.
—
Rachel Burchfield,
InStyle,
29 May 2026
Conrad Weiser was a Pennsylvania German who had roamed the frontier for decades, learning the Indian languages and befriending Indian leaders, including some who encountered Washington in Ohio.
—
Literary Hub,
20 May 2026
Things take a turn when Snow, 40, who plays Sophie, moves to Texas and tries befriending the group of East Texas socialites — only for a teen girl named Abby to turn up dead.
—
Lexi Lane,
PEOPLE,
10 May 2026
Beyond the Artforum ads, Bischofberger also made a significant contribution to the trajectory of contemporary art, personally befriending artists such as Francesco Clemente, Julian Schnabel, and Andy Warhol and even transforming their practices along the way.
—
Alex Greenberger,
ARTnews.com,
9 May 2026
This approach involves befriending the zeros inside large AI models.
—
Olivia Hsu,
IEEE Spectrum,
28 Apr. 2026
Rafa Sales Ross,
Variety,
16 June 2026
Dogs did it at least 14,000 years ago, discovering that befriending garbage-producing humans resulted in tastier, more abundant scraps and less arduous lives on their own.
—
Shoshi Parks,
Popular Science,
10 June 2026
Utterback, who’d just gotten married and bought a house in Omaha, instead devoted himself to learning on his own, poring over books, making regular trips to Japan, and befriending masters of the craft.
—
Hannah Goldfield,
New Yorker,
8 June 2026
Palmer-Tomkinson was friends with both William and Prince Harry, befriending them in childhood.
—
Rachel Burchfield,
InStyle,
29 May 2026
Conrad Weiser was a Pennsylvania German who had roamed the frontier for decades, learning the Indian languages and befriending Indian leaders, including some who encountered Washington in Ohio.
—
Literary Hub,
20 May 2026
Things take a turn when Snow, 40, who plays Sophie, moves to Texas and tries befriending the group of East Texas socialites — only for a teen girl named Abby to turn up dead.
—
Lexi Lane,
PEOPLE,
10 May 2026
Beyond the Artforum ads, Bischofberger also made a significant contribution to the trajectory of contemporary art, personally befriending artists such as Francesco Clemente, Julian Schnabel, and Andy Warhol and even transforming their practices along the way.
—
Alex Greenberger,
ARTnews.com,
9 May 2026
This approach involves befriending the zeros inside large AI models.
—
Olivia Hsu,
IEEE Spectrum,
28 Apr. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for befriending
Verb
-
Thank you all so much, Trevor, Karissa, Sarah for joining me on The Excerpt, and of course, Happy 4th of July.
-
Before becoming a pro, Kelly, an Anaheim native, played his high school baseball with CHS before joining UC Riverside for college ball.
Verb
-
Production runs from a Los Angeles home base plus two traveling studios that move to the best matches each day, borrowing the fanfest grammar of Big Noon Kickoff.
-
For those traveling in first class, the Coast Starlight offers a full dining car experience, with meals included throughout the journey.
Verb
-
Organizers also have transformed portions of Figueroa Street into a festival corridor connecting the venues.
-
The integrated workflow is intended to reduce the need for separate software tools by connecting chip design with evaluation board development in one process.
Cite this Entry
“Befriending.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/befriending. Accessed 5 Jul. 2026.
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